Winter (Draco x Reader)

Chapter 27- Divination and Invitations

True to their word, the tall figures of both my parents greeted me in the busy station. I coughed, throat tickling from the thick smoke that lined the platform as I pushed my heavy luggage towards them. My father dipped his head at me in acknowledgment, while my mother latched onto my elbow without further ado.

With an unpleasant twist to my stomach, we were back on family grounds, the sprawling architecture of my childhood home rising from the trimmed grass. Courtesy of the season, the lilac was in full bloom, a welcome waterfall of purple against the grey backdrop. My mother pushed the front door open, my father dragging my luggage into the foyer. Rooky's small figure stood front and center, and I grinned at his formal bow.

"Welcome back, Miss," he squeaked.

My parents left me to settle in, Rooky trailing up the grand staircase behind me to help unpack. Once the doors to my bedroom were closed and the cat had been set free, taking up her throne on her soft orange bed, pretenses could fall. Skinny, wrinkled arms snuck around my waist, wet sniffles audible.

"Rooky is so glad Miss Y/N is alright!" he said in a wobbly voice, big eyes swimming with tears. "It wasn't right to turn you out, it wasn't!"

I threw my arms around him in return. "I have very good friends," I said simply. "And I'm back now. Thank you for worrying, Rooky."

"Miss Y/N has always been so kind," he practically bawled. "It was very different without you here. Strange people were coming and going, and Rooky had to be so careful."

"Strange people?" I repeated with a frown, taking him by the shoulders. He pointedly looked at his feet, lips trembling.

"Rooky was ordered to keep quiet..." It looked like it physically pained him to admit it.

"Then, please do," I said, knowing full well the punishment that awaited him if he disobeyed. "How about you nod or shake your head instead, yes?"

His hands gripped the hem of his uniform tightly, but he nodded.

"Have I met them before?" I asked, receiving a sharp nod in return.

"Do they work at the Ministry?" A hesitant balancing of his head. "Some?" A nod.

"Are they planning something?" A nod, with wide, fearful eyes.

I could barely bring myself to voice my next question, voice scratchy and weak. "Does it have to do with Lord Voldemort?"

Silent tears ran down his thin cheeks, and his head dipped forward in the barest of assents.

............................................

The air under the veranda was sweltering, the zenith of summer truly upon us. Britain was suffering a heat wave, temperatures soaring. Despite my mother's botanical spells, the grass had turned a burned shade of yellow, the hedges of the maze an unsightly brown, lending an apocalyptic look to the scenery. She half-reclined in her chair, aiming a large paper fan with a pattern of flying birds towards her face. My father's face was covered in a faint sheen of sweat, the collar of his linen shirt loosened for the first time in years. I squirmed in the still air, picking at my dinner.

"Y/N," my mother broke the silence, fixing me with an indulgent look. "Have you given any thought to which elective subjects you would choose for third year?"

"I would recommend Exoplanetary Sciences," my father commented, dabbing a handkerchief over his forehead. "It is always good to expand one's worldview and Hogwarts is in a superb position for star-viewing, with the equipment to match."